John Ackroyd, design engineer extraordinaire, has been a key man in a mad mix of land speed and long distance balloon record attempts, including the first supersonic land speed record. This book gives a fantastic insight into the frustrations, tragedies and triumphs of record breaking. It describes battles against the odds, the whims of the weather, the constraints of time and money, and the often strange intervention of fate. Project Thrust, Virgin Atlantic, Pacific and global balloons, Earthwinds, Thrust SSC, Spirit of American, rocket motorcycle, rocket dragster, wheel-driven record breakers and waterspeed attempts are all here. The story is told by the man who provided solutions, innovations, design and real problem solving which were major contributions to the record breaking achievements on land, sea and air in the last quarter of the 20th Century.